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What do these two people have in common?

Indeed, what do former U.S. Senator Richard Armey and former Beatle Ringo Starr have in common? Other than, of course, immense artistic talent and devilish good looks. Well, they both are named Richard and they both were born on July 7, 1940. This means, surprisingly, at least as far as the Office of Foreign Assets Control (“OFAC”) is concerned that they are both not merely 73-year-old men named Richard but are, in fact, one and the same person.

If you don’t believe that, tell that to Wells Fargo Bank which just got whacked by OFAC to the tune of $23,937 for opening up bank accounts for people that had the same birthdates as narcotics kingpens on the SDN list and that had names that shared part of their names with those narcotics kingpens. Wells Fargo opened an account for Carlos A. Ruelas (who had a U.S. address and a U.S. social security number) who allegedly was Carlos Antonio Ruelas Topete who was on the SDN list with a Tijuana, Mexico address. (Ruelas Topete was deleted from the SDN list last January.) The bank also opened an account for Claudia Aguirre (who also had a U.S. address and a U.S. Social Security) who allegedly was Claudia Aguirre Sanchez who is on the SDN list with a Tijuana address.

The moral of the story here, whether or not the account holders were or were not SDNs, is that it’s probably a good idea to screen not just by names but by birthdates as well. And the next time you see Dick Armey see if you can get him to play the drum part for “I Wanna Hold Your Hand.”

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